Graduway Software

Graduway is a cloud-based alumni mentoring and management solution designed for companies of all sizes. It offers appointment scheduling, progress tracking and program management functionalities within a suite. The product is suitable for universities, business schools, law schools, medical schools, K-12 schools, corporations and nonprofits.

Graduway enables users to create alumni groups with the help of customizable registration forms. Users can create a combined engagement portal for colleges, schools, affinity groups and chapters. The product also offers mentor matching, which allows users to select alumni mentors for the student groups based on their skills, age and line of work.

Graduway offers integration with different customer relationship management (CRM) systems such as Raiser’s Edge NXT, Blackbaud CRM, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and Ellucian, which allows users to send alumni data directly to these systems. The product also features a branded mobile app for institution students and alumni.

Very good. It's clear that Graduway really seeks to provide value for money and never stops optimization. The migration to the new platform is quite delayed but looks promising. When problems with the previous customer success manager arose, Graduway reacted quickly and provided a new, very supportive and experienced customer success manager. The tries to sell additional tools was quite persistent at some stages, especially given that we're already a client. But overall Graduway does a great job and the strategic input by the CEO was also very helpful. The Global Leaders Summit is a great opportunity of further education, especially for small alumni teams. We've learned a lot about alumni engagement thanks to Graduway!

Pros

It makes it easy for alumni to find each other and reconnect. An alumni newsletter can easily be set up and customized. Statistics are very helpful for benchmarking and ROI checks.

Cons

Customization options are still quite reduced at some tools. If the platform isn't synched to school's database (in our case not possible as the database is tailormade), managing access and updates is quite time consuming.

Review Source: Capterra

LinkedIn icon

Verified Reviewer

Number of employees: 1,001-5,000 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

September 2018

Very good online community

It's been the best online community we've used so far. It's functionality is very specific to online communities (is not a replacement for a CMS, or an event registration software) However it may be a good choice for many institutions looking for an online community solution, easy to implement and to use.

Pros

The time to go-live with a fully branded community, the usability, the app included and the one-click prebuilt reports.

Charlene from Jack Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University Luxembourg

Number of employees: 501-1,000 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

August 2018

SHU Luxembourg Alumni Association Platform

Customer Service has been efficient, effective and responsive. We look forward to growing our database and reconnecting with our global alumni.

Pros

This platform is user friendly as an administrator and as a registered member. The functions and pages are visually positive and the APP feature is a valuable feature for connecting with our SHU Luxembourg Alumni around the world.

Cons

The initial set up and format criteria seemed a bit complicated and we relied heavily on the Graduway staff to input initial programs and links correctly.

Review Source: Capterra

LinkedIn icon

Verified Reviewer

Number of employees: 1,001-5,000 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

August 2018

Review

Pros

We are currently trialing products for our graduation application process and I really like this system. It easy for the student and administration.

Cons

There were a few functions that seems confusing , however we have only had a short trial so far.

Review Source: Capterra

Peter from Morris Catholic H.S.

Number of employees: 51-200 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

August 2018

Great Product -

Pros

I like the opportunity to have a specific portal for alumni to connect with the school specifically with the opportunity to connect with younger alumni and offer help and mentoring.

Cons

I like the overall product, but would like new fatures and options to be offered quicker.

Review Source: Capterra

Response: Graduway, Graduway

August 2018

Dear Peter, thank you for your positive review. Graduway has started (September 2018) rolling out the next generation product. This product update has a completely new, even more intuitive, user interface and many new features. We look forward to having you on board the new platform soon!

The program is cost-prohibitive for some educational institutions which are smaller in size or budget and cannot justify the high expense relative to their small size or alumni community size.

Review Source: Capterra

LinkedIn icon

Verified Reviewer

Number of employees: 1,001-5,000 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

July 2018

Connect, reconnect, and stay engaged with alumni

A centralized, easily-understandable platform for our institution to engage with our alumni, who are then able to engage with each other.

Pros

The obvious benefit of Graduway is a centralized zone for alumni to meet and connect, especially on their own terms. Any higher education professional can tell you how important an engaged and connected network of alumni is to the current health of the institution. All of our alumni can see any of our networking events, making our outreach much simpler. Creating things like newsletters or event pages is very simple, even for the less tech-savvy members of our staff.

Cons

Customization and functionality leaves a little to be desired... Graduway offers a centralized, "one-stop-shop" platform, but doesn't necessarily outperform other competitors in terms of specialization. Stats on open rates would be ideal.

I love that we now have the capability to offer our alumni a networking and social media type platform. This has been severely lacking in our fundraising and overall alumni interaction efforts. Graduway now provides an outlet to update alums and keep them connected with the school.

Cons

The design. Hands down. We NEED an outlet on Graduway to put a daily update of class notes that don't need to be deleted or replaced and can provide a history log as well (similar to Facebook). I know Graduway is working on this design, but it's been pushed back and I believe this is hurting our alumni connection efforts.

Review Source: Capterra

Sedef from SG Management Consultancy

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

We had some difficulty with the customization however now all is well.

Pros

The features and functions are very good. It really serves the needs for developing a community among alumni. Our current contact person really changed our experience with Graduway, she is knowledgeable and effective as well as ready to help gladly for any issue we have.

Cons

There are small issues as a user. For example we still cant invite alumni via gmail, this should easily be possible. When you click like for a post you see a number indicating the number of likes. But right next is the unlike command. So at first glance it seems x number of unlikes.

Review Source: Capterra

LinkedIn icon

Verified Reviewer

Number of employees: 1,001-5,000 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

It's a wonderful platform to connect alumni who may have lost each other after graduation

Getting contact details of our lost alumni especially for my job at the Alumni Relations Department at UCT

Pros

The events feature from our alma mater. Now I get the chance to see what events is the University of Cape Town holding since i do miss the emails sometimes.

Cons

The cluttered feel. Sometimes we do get lost in it especially in the Home Page. SO if we can get an option to customize the look and feel of it would be awesome.

Review Source: Capterra

Michael from University of Arkansas at Monticello

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

The Graduway platform has allowed up to reach more of our recent alum who prefer to use social media

Pros

The platform is like a traditional social media software application which makes the learning curve for administrators and end users minimal.

Cons

At this time there isn't anything that I have found to be a downside. I would recommend this product for any institution looking for additional ways to reach their alum.

Review Source: Capterra

Mark from University of Sussex

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

Offers new elements to the service we currently offer.

Pros

Networking and mentoring functionality is good and will encourage something we have tried before without software backup.

Cons

Visual interface is dated and navigation is not always very intuitive. Will be interesting to see how the Newsfeed gets used but currently doubt it will add much.

Review Source: Capterra

Suzanna from Griffith College

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

Very pleased with this software - looking forward to the launch of the next version later this year

Pros

This software is very easy to use and presents an attractive platform for all of our users. The features, from job posts to the directory to the mentoring function, are all very helpful to our community. The news stories can all be hyperlinked to a different website, which makes the platform more dynamic and creates a link back to the College.

Cons

There are certain features that can't be customised to date or just need to be fleshed out more (my understanding is that the next version coming out this year will resolve a number of these issues): the newsletter only allows a feature article and then just pulls data (not news pieces) from the platform; there's no way to see the content of messages that have been sent; the available stats are minimal.

Review Source: Capterra

Russell from Colfe's School

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

I love our Graduway platform. It has brought our alumni relations platform into the 21st century

An engaged and re-invigorated former pupil platform that attracts alumni on a global scale and encourages them to interact and respond.

Pros

Our Graduway platform is engaging and sticky and encourages users to interact on the site. They post photos and message each other independently.

Cons

The UK searching fields by location are ridiculous - there are thousands of towns on there listed that I've never heard of - too many to make it of any use...It would also be useful to have the 'work' filter in the invite and message function too.

Review Source: Capterra

Clive from Brunel University London

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

Graduway is a great addition to the alumni experience, offering real networking benefits

Pros

The networking features are simple and straightforward for users and admins alike.You get the whole package at it's most updated as it is developed, so no need to add Bolt-ons, modules, or worry about which version you are running.The newsletter function keeps the alumni engaged.

Cons

There are some areas like Groups and Mentoring which still need development and do not have the functionality some specialist competitors can boast. Graduway has a wide-range of features and it is one of the best all-rounders, but some specialist packages outperform it in individual areas (but do you want your users to be juggling multiple log-ins?)

Review Source: Capterra

LinkedIn icon

Verified Reviewer

Number of employees: 201-500 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

A highly effective alumni networking portal.

Pros

The platform provides the organisation with a useful place to centralise digital alumni engagement and helps to provide up to date and accurate data for the alumni community that sign up to the site. Furthermore, the portal allows individual graduates to shape their own experience (by posting events and job opportunities) and contact others directly.

Cons

It is somewhat difficult to encourage repeat engagement/visits to the site. I expect that this will become much easier once a critical mass of graduates is reached but I am uncertain of what that number will need to be. We have a relatively small graduate community when compared to larger HEI's which has both opportunities and challenges.

I am looking forward to seeing the rollout of Graduway's product road map as I suspect this will keep the platform ahead of the curve in terms of functionality.

Review Source: Capterra

Helen from Royal Grammar School Guildford

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

It's been great working with the Graduway team to develop our alumni relations outreach.

Pros

I like the simplicity of the software and it's ease of use for both admin and users which is important for Alumni relations departments where technological knowledge may be limited.

Cons

I least like the overall look of the software as it is now a little dated and doesn't necessarily lend itself to promoting the most important functions and features of the platforms.

Review Source: Capterra

Olaya from UWC Maastricht

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

It has helped bringing our alumni community together in a more visual way.

A location for alumni, to visually track our growing network.

Pros

Statistics, photographs, links to current universities/companies, job posts. The fact that users themselves can create their own groups, etc.

Cons

Guiding videos of the different uses could be integrated into the platform, on the admin side.There should be regular reminders for alumni members to update their email addresses.Jobs section should include the possibility of internship/other opportunities since our graduates are from a high school and not a university.

Review Source: Capterra

Gemma from www.ismoshi.org

Number of employees: 201-500 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

Very easy to use and great professional look

Pros

The ease of use and the simplicity to produce things like events and newsletters. I find databases can be difficult to get used to but this was very straight forward. The monthly statistics as well are good for reporting to the board about our impact and can help to see where we need to work more to get the database even bigger or used more.

Cons

The pictures seem to always have to be cropped to be used on the site so this sometimes can cut out things I want on there.

Review Source: Capterra

Chris from St. John's College

Number of employees: 201-500 employees

Ease-of-use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

March 2018

Good for the end user, bad for the institution with little options for reporting or customization.

It was actually a pretty significant step down in terms of functionality from IntroMaps, which was our product of choice before its purchase by Graduway.

Pros

Ease of identifying and contacting potential mentors and volunteers. Easy to sign up and create a profile. The search function (not the filters) in the Directory is surprisingly flexible.

Cons

Everyone gets every thing, so folks in Boston get notices about events in Los Angeles.Directory is based on city name rather than zip code or radius, which is incredibly inconvenient.Map and nearby are only available on mobile.The reporting is beyond bare bones - we don't even get open rates on newsletters.Every time we talk to customer service, we get a "no we can't do that" or "I'll have to talk to IT"...and then we never hear back. Support staff are in too-distant time zones, so we have to wait too long for a response. When something we want or need is available, it's usually a significant extra cost - so we get nickel and dimed for everything.

Review Source: Capterra

Displaying 1 - 20 of 109 reviews

In just fifteen minutes, the experts at Software Advice can help you narrow down the right software for your organization.